Monthly Archives: July 2014

The smell was horrendous. And it was dripping everywhere. Chris had a pool forming in his cupped hand, and Lylah was screaming in between each projectile shot. Yes, after a wonderful break away to Portugal, Lylah was sick on a plane.

Bless her though, it was awful for the poor girl. Not to mention her daddy. Or the unfortunate lady in front of him who managed to stick her elbow in the vomit between the seats! We had spent the last twenty minutes or so trying to get Lylah off to sleep. She had napped on the flight over, and fallen asleep on me by the Vilamoura Marina every night of our holiday, so I thought after a bottle of warm Portugese Full Fat (Gordo – get me) and the motion of the plane, she would be out like a light. Full Fat milk and motion – those are the things that did not mix well inside little Lylah’s tum. After nearly half an hour of scraping my legs with her shoes/feet, pulling my hair/necklace/eyelids, and jumping up and down to get a better view of Nonna and Nonna who were sat behind us, it was a welcome relief when Chris said he’d have her on his lap. Mwah ha ha ha. How did I escape that one?! A couple of minutes earlier and it would have been me dripping with sour smelling, apple chunk infused, regurgitated milk.

The initial fountain of sick made me jump 2 seats away out of my near slumber (thank goodness there was an empty seat next to me on the otherwise full Easyjet plane). I shot up, not quite sure what to do next, and then watched as Lylah continued to empty her stomach all over poor Chris. I grabbed some wipes off my mum (mine were handily packed away deep in the case in the overhead locker – FAIL) and started to throw them in Chris’ general direction. Realising that this was doing very little good, I grabbed about 3000 paper tissues from the lavatory, and started to mop up the mess. Lylah was screaming through all of this let me add. Oh and people were staring, and looking in the other direction all at the same time. The girl sat in the next seat over, who had chirped about how “cute” Lylah was just 30 minutes earlier, was now hiding behind her magazine and earphones; no comments now!

I shouted for the air stewardess who came to the rescue, and gave me a massive tub of blue wipes – which were like all my dreams come true. They were big, and smelled like cleaning stuff, and at least helped me block the pungent odour out. I heaved a couple of times whilst mopping the chunks, but I got through it. Lylah and Chris had to be stripped off, and while Lylah sat with mum and dad, Chris had his moment of glory and did a strip tease at the back of the plane (no doubt showing off his tan – he was secretly delighted!). I in the meantime am on my hands and knees scrubbing the floor. Just imagine this scenario if you please. It hurts my head to think about it too much.

The main thing is Lylah is fine. She quickly recovered and when everything was cleaned up, and we only fractionally smelt of puke, we settled down and tried to get her off to sleep again.

Within minutes she was down again, on the floor of the aisle (thank goodness we were right at the back), and proceeded to squat right down on her hind legs. You can guess what she was doing now. In a 2-hour plane journey, Lylah managed to empty her entire body of that day’s food contents. She squatted until she was finished, at which point we made a trip into the cramped up cubicle to get her cleaned up.

She finally fell asleep on daddy once she was content and comfortable, and we all managed to get a bit of shut eye.

We had an amazing holiday, details of which will come in a separate post, but needless to say this was the highlight.

Date of last post – 31st May! Oopsy – this blog posting malarkey hasn’t been a priority of late, but as I was sat pondering over recent events, it occurred to me that now was the perfect opportunity to update you all on what’s been going on.

To say we have been busy recently is a huge understatement. It has been a couple of months of firsts for Lylah, with lots going on including a very big family event – more to follow on that!

Being a working mum means that I am used to being apart from Lylah for a few days every week, but I still get to go home and put her to bed, and have some precious moments before she enters into her nighttime slumber.

So, three days away for my sister’s hen weekend back in June really didn’t worry me. In fact, as awful as it may sound, I was really really looking forward to the break. Jugglehood is extremely demanding, and as any mum, let alone working mum, knows, your time alone is precious, so even though I knew I would miss my baby, I looked upon the trip as a chance to unwind, have a drink and enjoy myself.

Sat on the the Eurostar on the way to Disneyland Paris, someone in the party asked me if I was missing Lylah yet. And then it hit me. My stomach churned and flipped, I felt sick, and I began to well up. Before I knew it I was practically sobbing into my Prosecco. From then on, I couldn’t even think about Lylah without crying. It was then I realised…even though we are desperate for a break, in need of a glass of wine and a dance with the girls, and for some time alone to recharge, any time without your offspring is like being temporarily detached from something. I felt Lylah’s absence the whole weekend. I missed her face, her voice, her crying, her whinging, and her giggling and laughing. I missed her clinging on to me and rubbing my chin, pulling my hair and giving me kisses. To go to bed at night and not have her there to say “night night” to felt so unreal.

Don’t get me wrong, I had a fabulous weekend, and I have to admit that the break did me the world of good. But it goes without saying that I missed my daughter and husband a huge amount – they are my life. I would rather be with them than anywhere else in the world, and that’s how I know i am the happiest when we are at home together, pottering about the house and garden, just being silly and having fun.

So that was mine and Lylah’s first weekend apart, and it was safe to say that she coped with it better than I did!

Another first was Lylah’s moment in the spotlight as a Flower Girl for her Aunty Kay Kay at Kayleigh and Adam’s wedding on Saturday. It was the proudest moment of my life. Not only was I overjoyed for my sister and her now husband, but it felt complete with my little family by my side. Chris, Lylah and I were all in the Wedding party, and I was so emotional about the whole thing! We had a fantastic day, and apart from a few thunder storms, Lylah having a tantrum about getting into the limousine and a little power failure, the day ran smoothly, and most importantly, was filled with love and happiness.

Lylah was brilliant all day, and looked like a princess in her dress; the perfect little maiden for my stunning little sister in her perfect gown. She ate lots of sweets, boogied on the chequered dance floor and stayed up late, and went down like a dream for the babysitter while mummy and daddy drank a little more and enjoyed the live band!

I am so proud of my daughter, and also for my husband and I, and in the same breath, for all the mummies and daddies out there, who work tirelessly through the first few, long hard months of sleepless nights, teething, juggling work and parenting. We are getting there, and moments like we enjoyed on Saturday make everything worthwhile.

Now for our next family adventure, a few days on holiday in Portugal. I’m sure that will make for an interesting next post!